Bonding
by RedHal
Summary: This is another response to one of Ghostanimal's challenges.  Two one-shots with Jack/MaddieXPhantom family bonding.  Better than it sounds.
1. Jack

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

Summary: A response to one of Ghostanimal's challenges

The Challenge: MaddiexPhantom or JackxPhantom mother/son or father/son bonding fiction.

Rules: Danny cannot be exposed.

A/N: I couldn't decide if I should do a MaddiexPhantom or a JackxPhantom so I did both. They have NOTHING to do with each other. Well…maybe they have a LITTLE something to do with each other, but one can be read without the other.

Also, just as a bit of a warning, in ONLY the first part, there IS hint and a bit of DannyxSam, but it's more JackxPhantom father/son bonding. After all, what better father/son bonding topic than girl problems?

_**Bonding**_

**Fatherly Advice**

Jack Fenton was on patrol when he heard the noise of what sounded like a pebble being skipped. He went towards the duck pond in the park and saw a sight that was rare.

Danny Phantom, local town 'hero' and ghost boy, was skipping rocks looking rather deep in thought

"UGH!" the ghost boy exclaimed frustrated about something as he wasn't half bad at skipping rocks. "Why ME?"

Jack shifted causing Phantom to turn in shock.

"Da-er…Jack" Phantom gasped prepared to take flight.

"How come you're not terrorizing the town?" Jack asked pointing his bazooka at Phantom

"Well…all the other ghosts are either in the Ghost Zone or in that Fenton Thermos that whacked me in the face a month after I came into being" Phantom said. "So, I've been doing a bit of reflecting and I'm beginning to see why everyone had called me 'Clueless'"

Jack sighed. The look on Phantom's face reminded Jack of whenever his own son, Danny, was having trouble with a homework problem.

Because of that, Jack lowered his bazooka and sighed.

"You're not going to shoot?" Phantom asked

"You just remind me of my own boy" Jack said

"Scrawny black-haired kid with blue eyes?" Phantom asked.

"Yeah" Jack confirmed.

"He's a nice kid" Phantom said with a smile. "He's trying with the ghost hunting"

"He's hunting ghosts?" Jack asked stunned

"Yeah, but don't tell him I told you. He wants to get really good so he can help you guys out. Though I can't tell you the number of times I've had to save him"

Phantom held in a small laugh of disbelief when Jack put the bazooka against a tree. After over a year of being hunted, all Phantom had to do was tell the father figure of the Fenton Family that he saved his son numerous times and he was in the clear.

"So what's frustrating you Phantom? As a father, I could probably help"

"Well…" Phantom sighed. "In life, I had two friends…Sarah and Tom. Tom and I had been friends since forever. I met Sarah after Tom threw up in her lunch box in the second grade and told her…Richard Swamp did it. She kicked Rich off the jungle gym for that. Anyways, after that, we became the best of friends. However, something happened"

"Your death?" Jack guessed

"No. Before that. I 'died' at 14. This happened when I was 13. Sarah changed. She took on a new look and my first thought was something no friend should think of another friend, but I was a teenage boy starting puberty. And lately…I still visit them from time to time, but whenever I see her with another guy…I get this feeling of rage. One time when Ember was taking over the town and I was placed under her spell to be in love with Sarah, she broke the spell by kissing the guy who had bullied me in life. I felt like my heart had been ripped out. And then when she dated this guy from…Romania…and I used my powers to spy. He kissed her which she returned and I felt my heart get ripped out and stomped on before going through a grinder. And when she told me that the guy had been a fake, I felt relieved. However, she seemed upset over the fact that the guys who seem to be the only ones who want to date her are fakes. So I told her that there were plenty of reasons for a guy to want to take her."

"what are those reasons?" Jack asked

"She's smart, pretty, fun, feisty…" Phantom listed before smacking his forehead. "Why am I rambling? I am such a spazz"

"Why DO you haunt your old friends?" Jack asked

"I don't know" Phantom said skipping another pebble. "It could be because they had been present when I died. Or that we promised we'd be friends forever and that nothing could tear us apart which apparently considered death"

"I THINK I may know your problem" Jack said. "I just need to know a few things"

"If it's what caused my death, that's a BIT personal" Phantom said

"Nothing like that. Would you do anything for her?"

"Yes"

"Would you take a bullet for her…if the bullet would finish you off?"

"Yes"

"Do you have dreams about kissing her, if you do dream?"

"Yes"

"Then you have it bad" Jack stated

"What do you mean?" Phantom asked

"You, Phantom, are in love with Sarah"

"LOVE?" Phantom exclaimed

"It COULD be why you're a ghost." Jack said. "You died without telling her. OR you're a ghost to protect her the way you couldn't in life. I don't know HOW you can still love since ghosts aren't suppose to have emotions, but perhaps this Sarah is your obsession. Besides, whenever you were thinking about her during our chat, you had the SAME look MY son has when he's thinking about HIS friend, Sam"

"Really?" Phantom asked nervously "So…what should I do?"

"Tell her" Jack said "Sure she can't have you now, but it'll help you. Who knows? Maybe her kid will be named after you"

"Maybe" Phantom said before smiling at Jack. "Thanks Jack. My life…er…afterlife makes more sense."

"No problem Phantom. Glad I can give some fatherly advice to SOMEONE. Danny just seems so busy these days, I hardly ever see him."

"Danny still loves you" Phantom said knowingly. "He just has a lot of stuff on his plate between training in ghost fighting behind your back, school, and just typical teenage stuff."

"You think so?" Jack asked

"I heard it out of his mouth personally" Phantom said before taking off

0000

The next day after school,

Jack was working on a tracking device when the front door opened to reveal Jazz and Danny. Jazz looked as if she had won the lottery and had been given a full ride to Harvard all the way through her Doctorate degree. Danny looked a mix between annoyed with his sister and on Cloud Nine.

"How was school today?" Jack asked

"DANNY GOT A GIRLFRIEND!" Jazz announced. "AND I MADE $50!"

"Really?" Jack asked

"I got the nerve to ask Sam out" Danny confirmed "She said yes"

"Always knew you and that creepy goth girl would get together" Jack said proudly. "You gave her the ring, right?"

"Yes" Danny confirmed with a smile and a bit of an eyeroll

And HE was called 'Clueless'?

The End


	2. Maddie

**A Mother's Love**

So far, Maddie Fenton had been having the WORST Mother's Day in history. Her daughter was out of town for a college tour, Jack had woken her up at 5 A.M., and her son Danny had ran out of the house without so much as a 'Happy Mother's Day'. Not even an 'I love you'

The day was ending and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of her son. Now she was stuck patrolling the park as the sun was vanishing over the horizon.

Suddenly, she heard a sound. She positioned her bazooka and pushed apart the bushes.

What she saw STUNNED her.

There, sitting by the fountain, was Danny Phantom, local town 'hero' and ghost boy. However, what stunned her was his current activity.

He wasn't flying (as previously stated). He wasn't fighting another ghost. And he wasn't terrorizing anyone.

He was crying.

Maddie lowered her bazooka in shock. Ghosts weren't supposed to have emotions yet here he was, crying his non-beating heart out

He looked…he looked almost like her son at that moment.

Because of this, she turned off the bazooka and made herself known

"Phantom?" she asked

His head whipped around so fast, it was definitely inhuman.

"Mo-Maddie" He gasped as he tried to dry his eyes to hide the tears

"What's wrong?" she asked, the mother in her taking over

"Why do you care?" he asked

She shrugged.

"Because I can't stand to see a teenage boy cry, ghost or no ghost" she said. "Now, what's the matter?"

"I'm just…missing my Mom" Phantom told her

"You remember your mother?" Maddie gasped as all her research was starting to go down the drain

"apparently, the longer a ghost's been dead, the more it forgets of his or her past life" Phantom explained making her research still a bit valid. "I've only been dead a little over a year and I've forgotten just little things like my computer password and other minor stuff. Though I'm scared of when I'll forget my family, but according to my mentor, Clockwork, that won't happen for a LONG time"

"That makes sense" Maddie mused

"Just…you know what today is?" Phantom asked

"Mothers' Day" she confirmed

"So you see why I'm REALLY missing her right now?" Phantom asked, tears reforming in his neon green eyes.

"Why don't you visit her?" Maddie suggested

"She hates what I became. She doesn't realize I'm her son and is in denial of my death. You see…the accident that killed me vaporized my body" Phantom explained "So there's no real proof. And she's like you and Jack when it comes to Danny Phantom."

Maddie, the scientist in her shocked at herself, felt her heart go out to the now sobbing ghost boy. She placed a hand on his cold shoulder (literally) and gave it a gently squeeze.

"The worst part of all this," Phantom continued his rant. "When I was younger…we had a GREAT relationship. We shared everything from secrets to sodas. But then it got uncool to hang out with one's Mom so I started to pull away. When I realized I was never going to be popular…I wanted to get back the relationship. I found the PERFECT way too. She's a scientist…much like yourself. And one of her inventions wasn't working right. Broke her heart. She worked MONTHS on that thing. So…I tried to fix it myself and…and…"

"Got yourself killed" Maddie realized

"She thinks I ran away" Phantom said after a few moments as if trying to come up with a cover. "She doesn't know it was me that fixed the invention."

"Well…" Maddie suggested as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders "Maybe you can leave her a note explaining what you did and what you've been up to not letting her know that you're Phantom. And probably give her something that she's always wanted"

"I wanted to do that." Phantom explained. "But…I'm short on cash from what I had in life and I don't want to ask any of my VERY, very few human friends for a loan"

She then pulled out a note and wrote, _Put it on the Fenton Tab. –Maddie Fenton_

Her signature was so unique, NOTHING could copy it (no matter how hard Danny and Jazz tried).

"Use this to buy her that thing" Maddie said giving Phantom the IOU

"You'd really do that for me?" Phantom gasped stunned

"Wouldn't want YOUR Mom having a Mothers' Day like mine. My daughter's out of town on a college tour, my husband keeps blowing up the new Specter Speeder Engine, and I haven't spoken to my son all day"

"Maybe your son just has a surprise for you he's putting the finishing touches on. And thank you so much Maddie. I'll pay you back somehow. I promise."

Then, to her shock, he hugged her before flying off

0000

Later that evening,

Maddie was downstairs in the lab cleaning up Jack's mess.

"Mom?"

Maddie turned and saw her son looking a bit nervous

"What's the matter Danny?" Maddie asked

"Happy Mother's Day" he said with a small smile as he handed her a small box.

She opened it and gasped at the necklace where the pendant spelt the word 'Mom' with the O being filled in by a crystal that was a very familiar blue color. The color of her son's eyes

"Danny. It's beautiful" she gasped.

"Took a while to get enough for it" Danny said with a shrug. "And that's only PART of your present Mom."

"There's more than this beautiful necklace?" she asked as she put it on

"The other part is an explanation" Danny said with a sigh as he pushed a button on the lab wall and grabbed an ecto-bazooka as an obstacle course appeared

Maddie's mouth dropped as her son did the course in a time ONLY matched by herself and finishing with a grace that shouldn't have been possible for the school klutz

(A/N: Danny did the course in human form having been training in BOTH forms)

"The reason I've been missing curfew every night is because I've been ghost hunting behind your back" Danny admitted to his mother as he put the bazooka up. I didn't tell you before because I wanted to surprise you with my skill so you'd let me do more when we go out on those rare Fenton Family ghost hunts." Danny told her

She sensed he REALLY didn't want to tell her, but figured he felt that he owed it to her

"Danny….That was amazing" Maddie said before hugging her son who returned it "You're DEFINATLY going to be included now. But as for right now, how about some dinner?"

"Sounds good" Danny said "I'd cook for you, but last time I tried cooking something, Mrs. Foley banned me from using the stove"

Maddie laughed and kissed the top of her son's head at the new knowledge that her son had Jack's cooking skills. She went upstairs in a bit of a daze from what her son had shown her

"I'll tell her the rest for her birthday" Danny told himself before his ghost sense went off.

Maddie opened the freezer door and pulled out a frozen pizza. After putting it on the trey, she looked down at the necklace and frowned.

She could have SWORN the crystal was blue. So why was it now green?

In the ghost zone, at the Clock tower lair,

"Looks like Danny put a little too MUCH power in making that never-melting ice crystal" the middle-aged Clockwork said with a chuckle turning into an old man as he watched Maddie shrug it off figuring it changed in lighting or temperature as Danny Phantom was down in the lab beating up the Box Ghost.

The End


	3. Author Note to a Review

Author's Note to a Review I Got

Just so we're clear, the ONLY thing copied and pasted in this story is a conversation between Jack and Danny from one of my other stories that I'm not even sure I'm going to post. If any of this sounds like another fiction, then the other author just has good tastes in scenes. I was going to respond by P.M. but I didn't want to risk getting another review along those lines. If I'm going to knowingly copy and paste anything from anyone else, I'm going to ask their permission and then give them credit.

And as for the editing, I read through my stuff at LEAST three times before posting. Sometimes more.

Thank you for reading my stories.


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